According to this story on the SMH web-site, Senator Santo Santoro is going to shortly resign from the Senate:
“I will make that advice formal at the close of these current two-week sittings, giving both the Queensland Liberal Party and the Queensland parliament time to appoint my replacement before the commonwealth parliament again meets.”
…
He revealed he had hired an independent auditor to go over his financial records, and denied deliberately misleading parliament.
“Despite some of the more convoluted allegations to which I have recently been subject, I can proudly assert that I have at no time acted with dishonesty, deceit or deliberate intent to withhold information from the Senate,” he said.
Senator Santoro said he announced his resignation “with a heavy heart”.
He apologised unreservedly to the Senate for his transgressions, acknowledging he had let down his colleagues.
So here’s a question - why is he resigning? Was he pushed by the PM to stop a federal coalition freefall in Qld? Is the PM putting to bed any problems, including maybe problems we havn’t yet heard about from Santo? It’s pretty unusual for politicians to resign – I expected Santo to stay in the Senate and hope for a return to the ministry in due course. That’s what usually happens.
